Stations

The whole month of December was pretty laid back with holiday happenings and such. Isaac and Eli really started to play together more, so who was I to interrupt that? If they are playing really good together I feel that is more important than any other learning at this point. They need to learn to get along, play together, share, use their imaginations, make memories.

So with that in mind, I started stations. I pick out about 4 activities. I set them up around the dining room table, and I let the boys rotate through them. Sometimes we use a timer, sometimes it is not appropriate. The good thing is this way of learning keeps Eli preoccupied (for the most part) and learning too. I keep all my activities organized on notecards. I saw this notecard organization on www.whyamysmiles.wordpress.com. I've collected so many supplies, and I can just flip through the cards for ideas to keep track of what we've done and what I have!

The majority of these activities focus on motor skills. I've started introducing Isaac to writing simply because he is finally interested and wants to hold the pencil, crayon, whatever the right way! So we've been going over how to write each letter (very lax about this) and at the same time, trying to teach Eli his alphabet and sounds. He could really care less. It is so funny how different the boys are. Isaac knew his whole alphabet and sounds before Eli was even born. He knew them because he is good at memorizing and loved letters. Eli just wants to play and explore and watch OU football. :) So here are some of the activities. We might spend 45min to an hour total on 4 activities. To find many of these activities head to my fave websites: www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com, www.mama-jenn.blogspot.com, and prekinders.com

Matching letters, upper/lowercase, this was more for Eli, but Isaac enjoyed

getting the sticky tak and putting the apples on. Good for fine motor :)

Like I said, sometimes Eli loves it.

Sometimes he gets mad and goes to the corner.

Working letter puzzles together.

Prehandwriting with dry erase.

Cutting practice

Tongs and pom poms...practice motor skills,

counting, sorting, colors, etc

Balancing marbles on golf tees!

Playdoh and puzzles!

I have the number and letter playdoh stamps.

Do a dots!

 Ring Stands

 Melissa & Dougs Locks & Latches

 Handwriting without Tears Stamp & See

 Learning to writing the letter a with the magnetic pen

that comes with the Stamp & See

Ants in Your Pants! ---I came up with a physical activity for each letter in the alphabet.

They jump around holding their pants up with this one. They LOVE it.

A-ants in your pants, B- Bounce, C-Crawl, etc.

Sometimes I start the stations with a book.

Lacing letters

Dollar Tree money - recognizing coins, counting by 10s with dimes,

 adding simple dollar amounts by 1s, 10s, $5 +$1= ? stuff like that.

Drawing letters in sand with your fingers!

Outlining shapes with stickers and tracing shapes

 Rice box with letters...has to find the letters to spell his name.

Must find the right letters. Uppercase I...lowercase "aac."

 I stuck some lowercase i's in there to try to trick him.

I just asked Eli if he knew the letter he found.

Sticker dots instead of do-a-dots.

Hooked on Handwriting - this was given to me.

Practicing vertical lines. lol

pattern blocks

Tracing C---Oil pastel wax resist with water colors.

Caterpillar dice game with Leah (from Confessions)

The Very Hunger Caterpillar graphing chart. (from Confessions)

Learning to be Inventive

Learning to be inventive...yeah we're talking about me, not the kids! lol...I recently joined Pinterest. Refused to have something else take up my time. I find myself scouring the internet all the time for ideas I never make time to use, so I was thinking, "Why torture myself furthure and join this site?" Welp, I gave in. I saw a pin that sparked an idea. We've used baby wipe boxes to put our playing cards in just like a pic on Pinterest. I've seen people store a variety of items in these wonderful freebees, but I never thought of taking a picture of the item as a label. So this is what I've started doing. Sorry, the pic is dark...too lazy to go edit my mistakes...

Maybe I was on an inventive high because when the boys finally destroyed their abacus alphabet, I got an idea. I have no other way to describe this toy. It was the whole alphabet on this stand that stood up. Each block was on these rods. Looked like an abacus only with these block letters. I finally finished their job and broke the whole thing apart and ended up with this:

I thought and thought and all of a sudden. Tadah! Use them for lacing! And they can lace the alphabet in order! The boys enjoyed it!

I had them working together. Isaac would figure out which letter went next, he'd ask Eli to help find the letter, and then Isaac would lace it. Good practice for both boys!

Eli with his Pooh face. Hmmm....Let's see....

Teaching Math

Okay....so in teaching Isaac math...I've tried to do the Coming to Know Number way (a book I got in college)...getting him to see numbers as groups and stuff. Like automatically recognizing at 6 by seeing two groups of 3, and thereby learning 3+3, or 2+2=4 so 2+3 is one more, so it must be 5. I do all those "cute" inventive ways to get them to not rely on just counting/counting on. Sometimes it works, but sometimes Isaac naturally returns to counting on. I can't help but think here that the people that wrote that book obviously have not worked with kids. lol...Memorization is detrimental they cry! I understand their point. Some kids never really learn how to work with numbers and always rely on memorizing or algorithims. Isaac really seems to prefer just counting/counting on or memorizing flash cards. It is fun to him. I guess as long as you introduce different ways of thinking of numbers, its just fine and dandy if they take to memorization first rather than seeing groups or grouping numbers. I mean, it worked for me, so....and I still learned other ways of looking at things as I got older. So that is my conclusion. Developmentally, some kids aren't ready to learn the way this book suggests (although they claim they are!). Some kids don't conserve yet, duh! Introduce a variety of ways to solve or think of numbers and let them choose what works for them at their developmental stage.

The Internet: A Wonderful Homeschooling Resource with the Potential to Drive You Crazy

I sometimes find myself surfing and surfing and surfing some more for homeschooling resources. Endless printables, endless blogs, and endless amount of ideas. Almost to the point it drives you crazy. You might think, how can I ever incorporate all this stuff I love? Or you come across this perfect homeschooling website and think "How on EARTH does SHE do it all?" I then have to remind myself that those perfect little homeschooling moms aren't perfect. In general, you only see the best of their best. I still can't help but feel like I can't find time to do all the things I want to do with the kids. Overwhelmed to the point that I often sit there...thinking....instead of doing! So on days I feel like procrastinating all those cool ideas because I'm overwhelmed....I gotta play...

And you can find us building tents!

Tunnels!

Ain't nothin more fun!

Except maybe a picnic in the woods behind our house on a beautiful day!

Or a walk on the Rennaker trails. All indoor learning ceases when it is beautiful outside.

So sometimes I actually have the time to reacreate some of the ideas I see online....

Pom poms in an egg carton...counting, sorting, transferring.

Poking straws into tiny holes...fine motor skills....

Major entertainment.

Volcanoes!

First we studied the planets because Isaac showed an interest. Then he became obsessed with the Titanic. He is still intrigued by both these subjects. So far for his science/social studies, I just go with whatever he wants to study. This time we did Volcanoes!

We checked out a couple of books from the library. One being a Magic School Bus chapter book which he surprisingly was interested in listening to me read. The first picture book kicked off our study. Then we did a volcano model, read the Magic School Bus, and then made a lapbook.

Isaac painting the paper mache volcano.

When we discussed how lava cools and forms rock, I drug out my lava rocks that I picked up in Hawaii when I was a teen. He was so fascinated. He decided that he wanted to see Kilaeua for himself some day.

Another artifact I picked up in Hawaii. I took home some sand and have held onto it all these years. I just thought it was beautiful with all the different colors. I shared it with Isaac and told him how the volcanoes help create some of this beautiful sand. I wish I had some black sand though...

Proud of his creation. Now time to see some action!

A little bit of baking soda, little bit of food coloring, and then the vinegar!

Our first go round was explosive. I poured too much vinegar and it scared us as it shot out!

Second round, too slow, too much dish soap.

We never quite got it right...

But it still produced smiles!

Volcano lapbook

resource: homeschoolshare.com

This lapbook could actually work for a wide age range. Nothing was too difficult or above Isaac's interest though! I love that he loves to learn!

I created the labels and added velcro so that we can label the volcano together.

Isaac had to sign his name on the back.

Incorporating Words Their Way and other Ideas

My boys bring great joy and to see them enjoying a book together was so heartmelting. It won't be long until Isaac is actually reading to Eli!  And speaking of reading...Isaac is still just so interested in learning, so I go with it. I back off when it seems too much or he doesn't care. He's still so young, but I certainly don't want to miss out on the opportunity to learn if he wants to!

We took our learning outside today. Isaac and I were doing some addition problems in Math U See. Eli was tired of coloring and really wanted Isaac's pages. So to distract him, I said, "Eli go find a really cool rock and show me." So instead, Isaac dropped his things and said, "I wanna find rocks!" LOL...so there went math out the window. Time to start science! haha...so we looked for rocks, counted, compared, contrasted, and used descriptive terms.

We even found a rock that looked like an Indian arrowhead.

These are called 5 Frames and Dot Patterns. I learned about these in my Coming to Know Number book from college. I think it is important for Isaac to visualize his numbers and recognize groups. I don't want him to solely rely on counting and counting on. It starts as simple as memorizing the way a 4 or a 6 looks like on dice. I also work on finger patterns with him to "see" his numbers and to "see" 5+2=7 for example by holding up 5 fingers and 2 fingers. The above patterns work like this: He knows each card on the 5 frames always has 5 frames. He gets just a split second look, and I ask him how many black dots he saw. Sometimes he actually sees all 3 but sometimes he figures out it is 4 because there is one empty frame and 1 less than 5 is 4, so he knows there must have been 4 dots. Just forces thinking rather than straight up counting. I think he is ready to move on to 10 frames already!

We've started a word wall of words/sight words he knows immediately. Many of these come from his reading and other word studies. We sort them into rows by rhyming words, color words, etc. We practice these periodically.

Next door to our word wall is our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree that I made for Isaac's benefit, but Eli's too as he is now very interested in the story and starting to show interest in his letters. (by the way this interest has developed WAY later than it did with Isaac! lol Eli is so different). After we study a letter, it goes up on the tree. Now let me explain my new way we are doing our reading and phonics.

I began to notice that Isaac was getting beginning and ending sounds mixed up. So I borrowed this activity from my Words Their Way book that I used in college. You sing:

"Beginning, middle, end,

Beginning, middle, end,

Where is the sound?

Where is the sound?
Where's the mmmm in mat?

Where's the mmmm in mat?

Where is the sound?

Where is the sound?"

The child then flips the appropriate card based upon the sound you're looking for. I hope this helps him. Sometimes he wants to just shout off the last sound he hears when I ask for the beginning sound.

So I decided to go back to a study of beginning consonants. He totally learned these on his own through everyday talking and Starfall.com. By the time he was Eli's age, he was telling me what sounds the letters make. But I began really studying my Words Their Way book, and felt I should take a step back and do a thorough study. So here is what we do.

At the beginning of the week, I choose three letters that we will work on for that week. I try to study them in the order as suggested in the book. We'll look at vowel and unusual consonants separately at the end.  I do three letters a week simply because this is review for him. I don't want to bore him to death by doing a letter a week. So he has this Letter Study folder. On the front are the many beginning consonant sounds we will study.After we've studied a letter, he colors the box to show we've completed it. We start Monday with time on Starfall.com to review those 3 beginning consonants. Then...

He completes a sound sort with those particular letters.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we do a draw & label and a cut & paste of the letters. On the cut and paste, I give him various pictures from the Words Their Way book and I give him magazine pages for more of a challenge. Make sure you check the magazine pages ahead of time for potential sounds!

For the draw & label, he draws something with that beginning sound. (I drew the mouse for him on this one.) He then has to label the picture to the best of his ability. We haven't formally done any handwriting yet, but I tell him to do his best at writing the letters of the sounds he hears in each word. He got bat! And rat! But didn't write rat in a linear-left to right fashion. The above picture was apple, popcorn, turtle, and monkey. :) I be sure to ask him to describe his pictures for me and later I pencil in the words on the back so that I can remember what he was drawing if there is any difficulty in figuring it out!

He does these letter hunts from confessionsofahomeschooler.com. These really are too easy, but he has fun doing them. I'm thinking about getting do-a-dot markers and asking him to only dot the p's  or m's that are the beginning sounds for example.

Isaac also has a personal reader that we work on at the end of the week. Thursdays are Storytime at the Duncan Public Library, so that is usually his language arts for the day. I choose a book, sometimes related to the letters we are studying, sometimes not, but I choose an easy reading book with repetition so that he can begin to learn/memorize to read it to me. I cut up familiar sentences from the story on sentence strips and he puts them in order in his pocket chart. (The same place we sometimes do our morning message. Sometimes we read our story after calendar time and do this as our morning message instead.)

His personal reader consists of familiar sentences from the book he is reading for the week. Sometimes they are his own sentences he has dictated to me. He selects words he feels like he can read or recognize. Sometimes I have to test him out of context. These familiar words are written on small cards for sorting. If we go through the cards later to find he doesn't really know the word and we discard it. Sometimes we add the words to our word wall.

A list of these familiar words are also put at the front of the binder. I put a star by the ones I felt needed discarding or he doesn't really know. (Sometimes Isaac gets personal if he notices I remove something.) The personal reader really gives him confidence and helps me see what he is learning.